Fear in Russian Literature

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Sandra,

There is a lot about fear in Grossman's VSE TECHET.

Chapter 3, for example contains this gem:

Да,  да,  в  преклонении, в великом послушании прошла его жизнь, в страхе
перед  голодом,  пыткой, сибирской каторгой. Но был и особенно подлый страх
-  вместо  зернистой икры получить кетовую. И этому икорному, подлому страху
служили   юношеские   мечты   времен военного  коммунизма,  - лишь  бы  не
сомневаться,  лишь  бы без оглядки голосовать, подписывать. Да, да, страх за
свою шкуру, как бы не содрали с живого ее, и страх потерять зернистую икорку
питал его идейную силу.

Yes, his whole life had passed by in obeisance, in a great act of
submission, in fear of hunger, torture and forced labour in Siberia.  But
there had also been a particularly vile fear – the fear of receiving not
black caviar but red caviar, mere salmon caviar, in his weekly parcel of
food from the institute.  And this vile, ‘caviar’ fear had co-opted his
adolescent dreams from the years of War Communism  to its own shameful ends.
What mattered was not to doubt or hesitate; what mattered was to give his
vote, to put his name to official letters, without a second thought.  Yes,
yes, what had nourished his unshakeable ideals was two very different fears:
fear for his own skin – of being skinned alive – and fear of losing his
entitlement to black caviar.
            ********

And much of chapter 8, a mock trial of a number of different informers, is
about fear.

Vsego dobrogo,

R.


> Dear SEELANGerS,
> 
> I am preparing a course on "fear in literature" and would greatly
> appreciate your ideas and recommendations regarding Russian literary
> texts in English or German translation (I would like to make this
> course available to non-Russian speakers) dealing with different types
> of fear ranging from angst to the absurd and terror to horror.
> Suggestions for intersting films in this regard would also be
> appreciated.
> 
> Thank you kindly in advance and I look forward to hearing from you!
> 
> Sandra Evans
> Slavic Studies
> University of Tübingen
> 
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